Selection From the Code of Hammurabi

108. If a tavern-keeper (feminine) does not accept corn according to gross weight
in payment of drink, but takes money, and the price of the drink is less than that
of the corn, she shall be convicted and thrown into the water.
109. If conspirators meet in the house of a tavern- keeper, and these
conspirators are not captured and delivered to the court, the tavern-keeper shall
be put to death.
110. If a "sister of a god" open a tavern, or enter a tavern to drink, then shall this
woman be burned to death.
111. If an inn-keeper furnish sixty ka of usakani-drink to ... she shall receive fifty
ka of corn at the harvest.
112. If any one be on a journey and entrust silver, gold, precious stones, or any
movable property to another, and wish to recover it from him; if the latter do not
bring all of the property to the appointed place, but appropriate it to his own use,
then shall this man, who did not bring the property to hand it over, be convicted,
and he shall pay fivefold for all that had been entrusted to him.
113. If any one have consignment of corn or money, and he take from the
granary or box without the knowledge of the owner, then shall he who took corn
without the knowledge of the owner out of the granary or money out of the box be
legally convicted, and repay the corn he has taken. And
The Code of Hammurabi 16
he shall lose whatever commission was paid to
him, or due him.
114. If a man have no claim on another for corn and
money, and try to demand it by force, he shall
pay one-third of a mina of silver in every case.
115. If any one have a claim for corn or money upon another and imprison him; if
the prisoner die in
prison a natural death, the case shall go no
further.
116. If the prisoner die in prison from blows or
maltreatment, the master of the prisoner shall convict the merchant before the
judge. If he was a free-born man, the son of the merchant shall be put to death; if
it was a slave, he shall pay one- third of a mina of gold, and all that the master of
the prisoner gave he shall forfeit.
117. If any one fail to meet a claim for debt, and sell himself, his wife, his son,
and daughter for money or give them away to forced labor: they shall work for

three years in the house of the man who bought them, or the proprietor, and in
the fourth year they shall be set free.
118. If he give a male or female slave away for forced labor, and the merchant
sublease them, or sell them for money, no objection can be raised.
119. If any one fail to meet a claim for debt, and he sell the maid servant who has
borne him children, for money, the money which the merchant has paid shall be
repaid to him by the owner of the slave and she shall be freed.
120. If any one store corn for safe keeping in another person's house, and any
harm happen to the corn in storage, or if the owner of the house open the
granary and take some of the corn.